Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I just found your recipe for Dulce de leche. I could not find it at the store and all the recipes I found were a little scary...4 hours on stove top (be careful it might explode) or in the crock pot for 8 hours...still a little scary. Then I found your method. Wow, 15 minutes and I'm done! I really enjoy your website, both the instruction as well as the photos of your food. btw, my husband is a mechanical engineer...I don't let him near my kitchen

This was fantastic. I used it as a filling between the layers of a birthday cake. It was creamy, chewy, sticky and delictible.
It took slightly longer that 12 minutes to get to the right state, but the microwave I was using was a bit older so that was probably it. While it was cooking it smelled oddly of cheese, but the finished result was sweet and delicious! I'll totally make this part of my repetoire.

After reading all these comments I had a bit of a brainstorm. (My Culinary Engineer persona waking up) How about quick fix, fruit flavored versions. Put 16 oz. of the canned milk into pint mason jars, add flavorings like strawberry, blue berry etc. and maybe some diced berries to boot, then process as normal in a pressure cooker or canner. Then you have several sealed containers of dessert that should be very shelf stable. No refrigeration required. Ideal for preppers. Just an idea.

A note on canning in general: for those of you who vent the pressure canner immediately after processing is done, I highly advise against it. If you process at fifteen pounds, the contents of the jars are also at the same pressure and if any jar has an unseen flaw, it could explode which could seriously injure you. To prevent the possibility of this happening, just turn off the fire and let it set till the pressure gauge reaches zero on its own. DO NOT pour water over the cooker! By that time the pressure in the jars will be at or very near zero also. What I normally do is can in the evening, timing it so that when I turn off the fire I'm going to bed. In the morning everything will be ready to go. Hope somebody finds some interest in this.

I haven't noted anyone writing on this topic in a few years, but thought I would share information that I had recently learned.

I used to make Manjar Blanco/Dulce de Leche by boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for at least four hours (the longer you boiled it, the thicker and darker it would become). This is the method I grew up with in Panama.

More recently, I had concerns about the possibilities of the can exploding and also wondered about the possible health hazards from metal leaching into the milk (due to long interval of boiling).

My concerns were compounded since my favorite brand of sweetened condensed milk - Eagle - now has only pop top type cans.

So . . . I started searching and came upon a really ingenious method that uses a slow cooker and Ball or Mason style jars. It is a truly ingenious method and my new go to for small gifts! I made several of these little bottles of delicious confection this holiday season.

What I did was to get Ball Jars - with seals and lids (or you can use any jar you have recycled as long as the seals and lids will fit them). I took the sweetened condensed milk and poured it into the jars, then seal tightly, place in slow cooker, and fill slow cooker with water (up to the level where milk stops in the Jar). Then you can cook it for either 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low (this is per recipe I found).

However, I like the dulce to be really thick (like consistency of peanut butter) so I actually cooked it for about 5 to 6 hours on high. The neat part about this method is that you can peek at the jars throughout the process to see how thick and dark the dulce is becoming.

The recipe I found says to lay the jars down flat and submerge in water (they had mentioned tightening very well). But I didn't want the dulce forming on the side of the jar - so I stood the jars upright and only filled water to the line of the milk (keeping an eye on it in case I needed to add more water). You have to make sure, however, that the lid of the slow cooker can come down completely - so choose your jars carefully. I tried to cook some dulce with a jar that didn't allow the lid to close completely (almost, but not completely) and it was taken forever to get results. I had to end up pulling the jar out, letting it cool and then putting it in another jar.

This method is nice 'cause you can add flavors and ingredients to vary the results. And, if what you are adding is not voluminous, you can even add it right to the can before pouring into jar - saving on cleanup. So far I have added small bits of crystallized ginger & ginger powder to one jar and cocoa and cinnamon to another jar. The cocoa jar did a weird thing and formed a sort of little mountain on top ;-) - have to find out with the gift recipient how that came out.

That is the other way cool thing about this method - after you let everything cool down, you can put a pretty ribbon on the jar and you have a wonderful & delicious gift to give a lucky recipient. I hope this information helps someone interested in manjar blanco and/or dulce de leche!

Ok guys, Doce de leite the real easy wasy. 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. Pop in the can with water and start timing from when it reaches pressure. Let the pressure release naturally and there you go. Thats how it's done here in Brazil!

Ok guys, Doce de leite the real easy wasy. 30 minutes in a pressure cooker. Pop in the can with water and start timing from when it reaches pressure. Let the pressure release naturally and there you go. Thats how it's done here in Brazil!

I tried that once, 15 PSI, for an hour and the consistency was barely semi-solid. Didn't taste all that good either. Used sweetened, condensed milk.

I made some this week. The easy way on the stove. Cooked it for about four hours, well submerged in the water. My result mae a lovely golden brown spoonable caramel. To use, I warm it slightly in the microwave, stir in a little cream to get a pouring consistency and have it over ice cream. Yummy!

When I make this, I like the semi-quick, extra-easy way. I pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a 9" pie pan and cover it with foil. I place the pie pan into a 9x13 baking pan and add 1/2" boiling water. This gets baked at 425 degrees F for 1 hour. Perfect!

im was reading this, and i want to let you know that Dulce de Leche is from Argentina, we use Dulce de leche for desserts, for example, peaches in syrup with dulce de leche or Flan with dulce de leche.

when i have time i will post some recipes of desserts with Dulce de leche.

Yes, the cans give you the best consistency. There is also a likelihood of all kinds of chemicals leaking from the seals of the can into the food, slowly making people sick (or not so slowly). This method allows you to bypass all those possible issues.

And I'm from El Salvador and I'm amazed at the consistency of this recipe. It's the closest I've come to getting the same consistency as the can.

This is a very cool an quick recipe I'm from Uruguay this form of making dulce de leche is something different than the way that I grew up making it and seeing it be prepared. My great grandma would have milk and sugar boil in a huge pot with marbles for several hours and would remove the foam at the top, once it began to heat up she would add vanilla beans, the vanilla beans would give the dulce de leche it's "Caramel" color. It's a quick way to make Dulce De Leche if I'm not mistaken Dulce De Leche originated in Spain and moved on to Spanish colonies in Southern America such as Uruguay and Argentina so on and so forth.

My mother used to make the boiled-tin version of dulce de leche and use it for the toffee bit of a bannoffee pie - smashed biscuits and butter as the base and whipped cream on top. It is ridiculously delicious. I'll try this quicker method next time